New Guinea

New Guinea is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean region. It is the world's second-largest island after Greenland (Australia is considered to be a continent), and the island is divided between Papua New Guinea to the east and Indonesia to the west. New Guinea gained its name when the Spanish explorers noted that the local Melanesians looked similar to the people of the Guinea coast of West Africa. The population of the island is currently estimated to be 11,000,000 people, most of them black Melanesians.